Moments that made ERC 2023 great: Rallying goes indoors in Canarias

A short, sharp 1.88-kilometre blast, the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria super special stage included a section inside the Gran Canaria Arena’s basketball court, where 8000 fans created an electric atmosphere.  

Driving a Pirelli-equipped Hyundai i20 N Rally2 for BRC Racing Team, Hayden Paddon was fastest of the ERC stars and enjoyed the experience.  

“We just tried to keep it really neat and tidy and get the donuts bang on,” said the New Zealander, who set a time of in a time of 1min 39.8sec alongside co-driver John Kennard. “It was actually quite an enjoyable stage, slippery but a good way to start the weekend.”

Competing on MRF Tyres, Racingnetwork’s Andrea Nucita was second quickest, 0.4sec behind his fellow Hyundai driver Paddon with Michelin-shod Simon Wagner third in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.   

Filip Mareš was fourth quickest with Grzegorz Grzyb the next fastest ERC-registered driver in sixth. Other ERC regulars to impress included Mártin Laszló, Mads Østberg and Tom Kristensson, who were eighth, ninth and 10th respectively.  

“At least I think I was giving a bit of a show and at least we enjoyed that stage,” Kristensson said.